A Kiss Before Dying
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Movie Reviews of A Kiss Before Dying
Movie Review: Much better than the remake, but still not quite there...
Summary: 3 Stars
The 1955 A Kiss Before Dying is much better than James Dearden's TV-looking remake, but doesn't hold up as well as it could to a second viewing. Gerd Oswald directed many of the best episodes of The Outer Limits but never made much impact on the big screen, and at times this is a little too conventional in its approach to its once taboo subject matter, although he makes a surprisingly decent stab at the unfilmable twist from Ira Levin's novel. But there's still the feeling that he gets more mileage out of the first half of the film, as Robert Wagner's All-American working class psycho finds his plans to marry into money shattered by an unplanned pregnancy (thrown away almost entirely in the remake) than the amateur detective work of the second half. Jeffrey Hunter's stiff turn as the eternally pipe-smoking square doesn't help matters much, but it's still worth seeing at least once. Curiously, the film looks and feels almost exactly like a mid-50s 20th Century Fox film, but was actually an independent picture released by United Artists.
MGM/UA's disc offers a nice 2.35:1 transfer with the original theatrical trailer.
Movie Review: Dated but Amusing
Summary: 3 Stars
Skinny, sociopathic pretty boy Robert Wagner accidentally knocks dopey, rich girl Dori (Joanne Woodward. He does the right thing by sociopath standards and makes her death look like a suicide. But her suspicious sister and Jeffrey Hunter (who apparently thinks he's Clark Kent) aren't convinced she took her own life. While the acting is on the bad side and I found myself laughing more than a few times during the film I did enjoy it. For me the most interesting part of it was seeing Jeffrey Hunter as someone other than Capt. Christopher Pike from the original Star Trek. Oh, and the cars... there's some cool cars in this film. But aside from that it does feel dated and a bit slow by today's standards. Some old movies like The Third Man, for example, hold up well after 50+ years. Others like this one... not so much although it does have at least one valuable life lesson in it: Girls who question whether or not their fiances are insane live, those who don't die.Movie Review: Fun!
Summary: 3 Stars
I think nobody reviewed the dvd edition yet, so I'll start saying that the anamorphic widescreen transfer is fine, colours are not drab and sharpness is very good. I did not check the full-screen side of the disc.I'm not sure the movie itself comes out so well but it sure is fun. Jeffrey Hunter playing some kind of part-time detective college professor, glasses and all, is something to be seen. And legendary Mary Astor is always a delight, she only appears in a couple of scenes though. Couldn't this mother/son relationship be a prelude to the one in "Psycho"? And what about killing the leading lady halfway the movie and having her sister investigate her death?
Well, plot holes, stilted directing, goofs (the clouds and the light in the important rooftop scene, obviously shot in different days or perhaps different times of the same day) and all, this is really fun to see (and Robert Wagner is so thin).
Movie Review: Slightly better than the remake,
Summary: 3 Stars
but only slightly. Wagner is really the only thing that stands out even a little bit in this. Joanne Woodward -- who apparently learned a LOT about acting between this and her next film -- was almost lackluster in her performance. Nothing about her was "special," other than her character was spoiled, stubborn, a drama queen and whined constantly. The other actors were equally ineffective. Virginia Leith was attractive, but that's about it. Look where she ended up 3 years later... Jeffrey Hunter looked like a kid playing grown-up with that pipe, and was really poor in this. Mary Astor was also a throwaway; one of her worst performances. The others were just there. The plot was decent, if a bit hackneyed; you see a lot coming. All told, catchit on TV or rent it.Movie Review: Robert Quarry alert!
Summary: 2 Stars
Holly Molly, Count Yorga is in this! I watched an entire scene before realising it was him. Sadly, Drac's understudy appears in a scene of almost self-emoliating unhipness. He plays a DJ who gets his brains blown out all over a typewriter, despite the fact that his wimpy killer was not holding the gun with any great conviction and moving around a lot in a confined space. What with being a DJ and all, you'd think he'd be handy with his arms but he just sits there crying for his mummy. Get a back bone man, you've got nothing to lose by having a go at the oleaginous creep. I mean he had trouble restraining a girl later on in the flick and you are sitting down too. So easy to grab his arm. Why am I wasting precious life rabbiting on about some old scene? Well, unhipness on this scale can threaten our very existence. Call it a public service. Poor Robert Quarry. Sorry, I mean, crown prince of UNCOOL!
The film's title is not technically correct. There is a bit of flying before she actually does the dying. But 'A Kiss Before Flying And Then Dying' is not so snappy on a marquee. People might think she got on a plane before dying. In which case, how did he kill her long distance? You have to consider these things. Well, not you personally. Where was I? Virginia Leith wears a clinging white top that is an outrageous come-on even for the fifties. There are enough vintage cars to make you nostalgic. Unless your name begins with C and ends in O and you smoke Cuban cigars. My God, that was laboured. This really is a slow sunday. Perfect for a nasty, tense pot boiler to break the nu. Hang on, I'll look that up. Ennui.